Blogs and Commentary

As Former Teammates And Rivals In the Homestretch of Great
Careers, Stanwick And Cummings Remain Close

While Maryland attackman Joe Cummings and Virginia attackman
Steele Stanwick were warming up with their respective teams before
last year's NCAA title game, they looked for each other to exchange
gestures meant to say, "Can you believe it? We're actually
here."

It certainly wasn't the first time the former teammates at
Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore knocked heads at Atlantic Coast
Conference rivals. And with the fifth-seeded Cavaliers and unseeded
Terps going to work in this weekend's NCAA tournament
quarterfinals, it might not be the last.

In fact, after each team lost in the semifinals of the ACC
tournament last month, the two chatted briefly and expressed hope
that history would repeat itself.

"It was a dream come true for us the first time," Cummings said.
"We talked about how cool it would for [the tournament final] to be
the next time we saw each other."

The two former stars at Loyola, who won a pair of MIAA
championships there, have had great careers on predictable arcs
since. Stanwick, the most prized recruit of his incoming class,
recently became Virginia's all-time leading scorer and has 262
career points. Cummings recently passed the 100-point mark and is
Maryland's top scorer this year. He also hit the dramatic
game-winning shot to beat Lehigh in the first round on Sunday.

And one of the first congratulatory texts came from, you guessed
it, Stanwick.

"It was a huge honor to play [at Loyola] with a player of
Steele's ability and selflessness, and such a winner," said
Cummings. "He is the man."